


One's Worth

by disillusionist9



Series: Choose Dare [4]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Ministry of Magic, Post-War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-02
Updated: 2016-08-02
Packaged: 2018-07-28 21:22:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 881
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7657210
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/disillusionist9/pseuds/disillusionist9
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Drabble #3 of 100. Blaise sees more than a pretty face in Cho Chang.</p>
            </blockquote>





	One's Worth

Draco Malfoy was well-versed in Pureblood genealogy in the United Kingdom. He could go back ten generations to name who was related to whom including anyone blasted off their tapestry and why. Pansy Parkinson could do the same but she included contemporary events: who was engaged at birth and how the betrothal could affect the family's current status.

Millicent Bulstrode and the Greengrass girls were brilliant at etiquette. All three could balance books on their head without magic) while serving an entire dinner party.

Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle knew all the old faerie tales from grimoires passed down by their grandmothers; neither of them cared to read their schoolbooks but could recite several tales from memory. Goyle liked to tell the scary ones to the first years.

Blaise, however...he could do all of that and more. Each of his mother's ill-fated beaus were from another country across the world so before he entered Hogwarts he knew how to speak three languages fluently and could passably speak another four. He could go as far back in Pureblood genealogy as Pansy and Draco in three separate countries. No one could deny he could be the most charming and polite boy in the whole of Hogwarts and knew exactly which fork went where. He knew as many faerie tales as Greg and Vince in every country whose language he could speak.

But for all of his pureblood quality and refinement there was one person more au fait than he. Cho Chang.

Blaise didn't think she knew just how royal she was. A beautiful Ravenclaw, her family had fled a Dark wizard in Taiwan decades before she was born. He had been surprised to read her name in the genealogy book within the library of his mother's beau before his fifth year, but it was only another validation for the fixation he had nurtured since the Yule Ball. She was a dream, exquisite. The fact that she was so firmly on the side of the Light and therefore unattainable to a worthless Death Eater wannabe like him made her that much more alluring.

Everything she did became perfection to his eyes. He wished he played Quidditch if only to share the pitch with her for a few hours. He envied Potter the way only a teenage boy can when he saw Cho with him on a Hogsmeade weekend. Valentine's Day. Bloody brilliant.

He didn't know her worth. Potter didn't know she was a descendant of the first pureblood wizard in Taiwan and probably would never care to know. Her marks were wonderful and enough to get her into an advanced Healer's course.

It was years after the war ended in Britain and the wizarding world changed. It didn't matter as much anymore about how much Blaise knew about Pureblood dynasties or etiquette. All that mattered was how closely you were aligned with the Light that last year. If you were Marked you were dead.

For the first time in ten years, Blaise felt safe enough to return to Britain. The international Portkey office was quiet and calm compared to the last time he had visited, fleeing the country posthaste. The world had changed, but his heart had not. He hadn't realized this at first but fate didn't let him have much of a chance to think on it.

"Welcome to the British Ministry for Magic," intoned the last voice he ever thought to hear again.

Cho was not the same witch he had pined after silently at Hogwarts.

"You've changed your hair," Blaise blurted without preamble. Thankfully her only response was to smile and nod. Belatedly he realized she must not have understood him as he had rattled off the phrase in Greek. Did she even recognize him?

"It's been a few years, of course I've changed my hair." Cho's friendly smile looked delightfully wicked around the Greek words, not a hint of an accent.

Blaise felt himself smiling in return. Switching to English seamlessly, he said, "You were going to be a Healer,"

"You were going to be a Death Eater," she rebuttled. The words should have stung but the tone of voice posed more of a challenge than castigation.

"A lot has changed," is all he could think to say. So much for hours of etiquette and poise lessons with his various nannies.

Cho nodded sagely. "It has." She took a breath that made her lips shudder delicately, blinked a few times after realizing she was staring, and looked away to shuffle papers on her desk. The private Portkey cubicle walls suddenly felt much closer.

"Uh...w-would you like to get some lunch?" he stuttered when the silence became stifling.

"Yes!" she answered, almost before he had even uttered the last syllable. Her cheeks were a becoming shade of pink.

Blaise smiled once again. No. Potter had never known her worth. Certainly the Ministry didn't either if she were stuck in International Portkeys. Cho never returned to the Ministry for Magic, she and Blaise were content to spend their days away from Britain and it's stifling past.

It wouldn't be until they'd been married for several years that he admitted he'd planned to meet her in that Portkey office to remind her of the world she could have at her fingertips.

**Author's Note:**

> If You Dare Challenge | #883 - One's Worth | Cho Chang & Blaise Zabini | Word Count: 881  
> Originally posted mid-January on fanfiction.net. The pair was requested by scrumptiousinternetllama (tumblr/ffn)


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